Skinny: Everyone loves the Cardinals, and who wouldn't with this cast back plus the addition of JUCO star Chris Jones (21.8 ppg at Northwest Florida State College) to replace Peyton Siva at the point. Behanan starts the season suspended "for a short period of time," but the Cardinals don't figure to miss him much. Harrell comes off a solid NCAA performance and could be a double-double guy.

Skinny: The Huskies return maybe the best backcourt in the nation with Boatright, Napier and Calhoun. All five starters are back along with their top six scorers, plus George Washington transfer Lasan Kromah can do a little of everything. The big question will be the inside where Ollie has preached rebounding, rebounding, rebounding all off-season. UConn was 290th in rebounding margin last season at minus-3.5 per game.

Skinny: A top-25 team going into the season and one with a nationally ranked recruiting class -- led by 6-8 freshman Austin Nichols -- has made the Tigers a top tier club. Missouri transfer Michael Dixon, who was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2011-12, was cleared to play. Memphis has questions inside with Tarik Black gone and needs to prove it can make an NCAA run under Pastner.

Skinny: The Bearcats were one of the top defenses in the country a year ago, ranking 14th in field-goal percentage defense. Lost two of its top scorers in Cashmere Wright and JaQuon Parker, but bring in a heralded 6-9 freshman shot-blocker in Jermaine Lawrence, who is regarded as a top-20 recruit.

Skinny: The rebuilding job Larry Brown has undertaken in Dallas should get a major boost this season with five starters back and three transfers: 6-9 Markus Kennedy (Villanova), 5-9 point guard Nic Moore (Illinois State) and 6-4 junior Crandall Head (Illinois) are all eligible. Plus, the program added its first All-American in 6-5 guard Keith Frazier.

Skinny: There could be some growing pains in Philly with some key losses, starting with top scorers Khalif Wyatt and Scootie Randall. Freshmen Josh Brown, a 6-3 off-guard, and 6-8 Mark Williams figure to be thrown right into the mix, and former 6-5 West Virginia guard Dalton Pepper could help on the wing.

Skinny: The Cougars return one of their top players in Thomas, but leading scorer Joseph Young (18.0 ppg) bolted for Oregon and point guard J.J. Thompson also left from a squad that was seventh in the country in scoring (78.1 ppg). Former Baylor guard L.J. Rose should be able to replace Thompson after sitting a year, and the Cougars appear to have some untested talent waiting in the wings.

Skinny: The good news for the Bulls is they return two of their top three scorers and they no longer have to get kicked around in the Big East. USF seems to have scored in the recruit wars with 6-10 John Egbunu and 6-8 Chris Perry highlighting a class ranked 12th by HoopScoop.com and 21st by ESPN.

Skinny: The Knights return four starters and 77.8 percent of its offense from a team that won 20 games. UCF added JUCO power forward Eugene McCoy to fill a void up front. Spurlock became the team leader last season and his game figures to be a key to how the Knights roll this year.

Skinny: Jordan has the task of trying to clean up a Scarlet Knights' mess that began last season with the firing of coach Mike Rice and carried over to the offseason with player defections that included top scorer Eli Carter. The good news for Rutgers is it only has one year in the AAC before it jumps to the Big Ten, and it also adds transfers J.J. Moore (Pitt) and Kerwin Okoro (Iowa State).